Norham Castle, Sunrise

We present Turner too rarely. But he is one of those artists who really needs to be seen live—not on a screen. Just look at this atmospheric landscape!

Norham is a village in Northumberland, England, bordered by England and Scotland. The castle was a key stronghold overlooking the River Tweed and historically was frequently attacked by the Scots. It also became a Turner motif, often painted by the artist throughout his life.

Turner visited the castle and the surrounding country for the first time in 1797. Following his journey, he created the watercolor Norham Castle: Sunrise, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1798 to critical acclaim. Turner revisited the ruins in 1801 and, five years later, in 1806, began work on his Liber Studiorum, a collection of monochrome landscape prints. Norham Castle, Sunrise was among a series of unfinished colored reworkings of these prints. Also, by the end of his career, Turner had created six different versions of this painting and returned to Norham Castle multiple times to reflect on his work and life.

Beautiful, isn't it? So impressionistic, before Impressionism! Well, Impressionism was a revolutionary movement—and, like all revolutions, it didn’t come out of nowhere and had its roots. The Impressionists, particularly Claude Monet, carefully studied Turner’s techniques. If you'd like to learn more about that, enroll in our French Impressionism Mega Online Course! 

P.S. J.M.W. Turner was an extraordinary painter. If you're still not too familiar with this artist's work, discover Turner in 10 paintings with us! For more art by the British master, see the article below.